Europe discards Arsenal and Liverpool shift focus to EPL title race

LONDON (AP) — What will it take to win the English Premier League with six games remaining? That's easy — perfection.

Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool — all eliminated from their European competitions this week — are locked in a tight battle for the title.

Defending champion City leads both rivals by two points but with Pep Guardiola's team playing an FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea on Saturday, Arsenal and Liverpool can gain ground.

“If you want to be champion in the Premier League, you have to be close to perfection,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said on Friday ahead of a visit to Fulham on Sunday.

“Anything other than perfect, you have to deal with the setbacks in the best possible way. That’s what we are now doing. We had a setback week,” he said. “Now we have to start turning it around.”

Arsenal, too.

Mikel Arteta's team gets first crack at retaking the league lead when it visits Wolverhampton on Saturday.

Arsenal lost at home to Aston Villa 2-0 last Sunday and was eliminated from the Champions League by Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

“We don’t have to talk too much, it’s about showing against Wolves what we are made of to turn this situation around and it can look really positive,” Arteta said on Friday.

The second-place Gunners lead Liverpool on goal difference.

Like Arsenal, Klopp's team lost ground to City last Sunday by losing at home to Crystal Palace 1-0. That was days after a surprise 3-0 loss to Atalanta at Anfield in the Europa League quarterfinals. The Reds won the second leg 1-0 in Bergamo but were still knocked out.

“The boys know that I don’t tell them things which I don’t believe in, and I’m 100% sure we can really win all the football games we have from now on,” Klopp said.

“If we would win all of our games, yeah, there’s a good chance that we will be champion. If not, then there’s a good chance somebody else is there. Maybe we only have to win five or whatever. Nobody knows. Who would have thought that Arsenal lose against Aston Villa? It just happens.”

City, bounced from the Champions League by Real Madrid on Wednesday, doesn’t play a Premier League game again until Thursday at Brighton.

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Liverpool's manager Jurgen Klopp takes his hat off to Liverpool supporters at the end of the Europa League quarterfinal, second leg, soccer match between Atalanta and Liverpool at the Stadio di Bergamo, in Bergamo, Italy, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Atalanta won 1-0 and advances to the semifinals. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah retrieves the ball after scoring the opening goal from the penalty spot during the Europa League quarterfinal, second leg, soccer match between Atalanta and Liverpool at the Stadio di Bergamo, in Bergamo, Italy, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta reacts during the Champions League quarter final second leg soccer match between Bayern Munich and Arsenal at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Bruna)

Bayern's Noussair Mazraoui, right, challenges Arsenal's Bukayo Saka during the Champions League quarter final second leg soccer match between Bayern Munich and Arsenal at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

PARIS (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled an international framework for regulation and use of generative AI on Thursday, adding to global efforts on governance for the rapidly advancing technology.

Kishida made the announcement in a speech at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Generative AI has the potential to be a vital tool to further enrich the world,” Kishida said, according to a transcript of his speech provided in advance. But “we must also confront the dark side of AI, such as the risk of disinformation."

When Japan chaired the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations last year, it launched a Hiroshima AI process to draw up international guiding principles and a code of conduct for AI developers.

Some 49 countries and regions have signed up to the voluntary framework, called the Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group, Kishida said, without naming any. They will work on implementing principles and code of conduct to address the risks of generative AI and “promote cooperation to ensure that people all over the world can benefit from the use of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI,” he said.

The European Union, the United States, China and many other nations have been racing to draw up regulations and oversight for AI, while global bodies such as the United Nations have been grappling with how to supervise it.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, left, is welcomed by France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, right, at his office in Paris, Wednesday May 1, 2024. Fumio Kishida is scheduled to visit France, Brazil and Paraguay. (Stephane de Sakutin, Pool via AP)